Reviewing music is a tricky past-time; one has to carefully balance a mixture of historical significance both nostalgically and factually along with comparison of a band's existing discography to its contemporaries and also its own work all the while fending off any overt personal feelings toward the subject matter. Beherit's Engram presents itself as a particularly troublesome entity when considering these facts. In the case of the band's history and influence the overriding reference will always be Drawing Down the Moon, which needless to say is held in high regard by most listeners of the genre (no more so than myself) as a landmark album that experimented with distorted, ritualistic ambient and mid-paced blackened metal. In short: it was highly original for its time. Naturally this brings us onto Engram:

To put it candidly, Engram is an example of fuzz over flavour. To say it lacks substance would be an egregious understatement, so much so that a few minutes of perusing the album will reveal everything on offer. But then what's on offer could be considered great if your bag is recycled thrash-riffs taken to an illogically simplistic extreme and encompassed in an overbearing production; an affectation surely employed to plaster over the lack of depth and effort on offer. Of course it wouldn't be Beherit without an electronic subtext, an aspect so expertly presented on their wildly under-regarded ambient affair Electric Doom Synthesis. Unfortunately the mind-numbingly horrific Casio driven "horn" effect on "Axiom Heroine" is quite enough to make one vomit out any joy that "Summerlands" or "Nuclear Girl" once brought. Quite simply, Beherit have decided to abandon their identity in favour of a one dimensional, Norwegian-inspired sound, a decision that will undoubtedly have the less experienced listener flooding Last.fm shoutboxes with caps-lock enhanced adjective mastery such as "cold" "evil" and "grim." The notion of a successful modern day ritualistic black metal construct is not beyond the realm of possibility if the recent work of The Beast of the Apocalypse is anything to go by; rendering the lazy, obsolete automaton that is Engram all the more disappointing.

Forgive the cynicism but the truly frustrating aspect of this release is that it perfectly caters to a vast, ever-hungry demographic that segregates itself off to the criticism of originality, creativity and spirit beyond the dead, archaic concept which Engram personifies, a concept which fanboys/girls perpetually extol and defend with concrete vigilance. From the mind of someone who values true artistic expression and individuality I can conclude that Engram is the awful result of a band that simply couldn't be bothered.

Beherit is one of the oldest Finnish black metal bands and they have been in a pause for a very long time. After more than ten years of pause, they have created a new album, called Engram. With that, they have proven that they are still capable of creating great black metal.

The songs on the album are very raw and relatively short when compared to the works of many black metal bands (barring Ildjarn, Immortal etc.). There is a long song, "Demon Advance", which is more of a progressive black metal track but it never gets boring. Songs usually consist of a few riffs but what they make with that little amount of riffs is really awesome. The vocals are not very harsh, but the normal ones (in terms of black metal). Another thing worth mentioning is that the sound of the album is very unique and original.

To qualify this review, and on a personal note, I should probably state that this is possibly the single most disappointing comeback in music history. Regardless, I wouldn't have scored more than 4 even if I hadn't had prior expectations.

Agreed, there should be a limit to the lack of effort. This is is just a pile of bland songs seasoned with their cult status. It just fails in every aspect. Yup, this is a very embarrassing moment for Beherit.

I don't see any reason not to like this album. I, personally, liked it a lot and I think that score is too low. But ok, it's just your opinion and I respect it.

It's fairly apparent from what I've read that Engram is pretty dichotomising album, I admit the majority seem to like it whereas others like myself really hate it. Going from the 5 is average philosophy I couldn't rate this album as average, it wouldn't have felt right. Fortunately there's already a positive review of Engram on this site so it felt less controversial rating so low.

This album is a pathetic piece of crap and extremely overrated by some.

Like the asses over at ANUS

It's precisely them I had in mind.
But those idiots judge music based on supposed kvltness and other shit like that, and not on the quality of the music itself.
They don't even see this album is an attempt at a cash grab based on a supposed kvlt status and marketed like that by the industry so the teenagers will fall in the trap, coming from a band that ceased to exist many years ago.